


love enough for three

by onlyeverthus



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 11:38:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5495741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlyeverthus/pseuds/onlyeverthus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a year of Clara traveling with the Doctor and Rose, Rose and Clara are both beginning to realize that their feelings for each other run deeper than just friends, but it takes events out of their control for them to confront how they feel. (AU after Doomsday.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	love enough for three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chiaroscuroverse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiaroscuroverse/gifts).



> Secret Santa gift for [chiaroscuroverse](http://chiaroscuroverse.tumblr.com/), I hope you like it, and Merry Christmas! <3

"So, where are we?" Rose asked as she bounded from the TARDIS, her face turned towards the sky before she spun to face Clara and the Doctor as they emerged from the TARDIS as well.

"Utopia!" the Doctor replied happily.

"Utopia?" Clara repeated, raising her eyebrows. "Seriously?"

"Yep. Most peaceful planet in the universe."

Rose scoffed. "The entire universe?"

"Yes," the Doctor said defensively. "What is this doubt I'm hearing in your voices?"

Rose giggled. "It just seems silly, the most peaceful planet in the _entire universe_?"

"Yes! They have no enemies, they don't have wars. They don't even have any negative words in their vocabulary. Don't say you're sad, they won't know what you mean."

Clara shrugged. "Sounds like a nice place to live."

"Maybe at first," the Doctor said, crinkling his nose. "I think it'd get a bit boring after a while."

"Well, you would," Rose retorted with a cheeky grin.

"I brought you two here so you could have a bit of fun, so go," the Doctor said, flapping his hand. "Have fun."

The girls giggled, and Rose stepped over to the Doctor to give him a kiss, smiling up at him when it broke before moving back over to Clara. As they started for the nearby city, Clara grabbed Rose's hand, and Rose pressed her lips together, her cheeks turning a vague pink. The Doctor couldn't help smiling as he watched them go, almost certain there was something blossoming between the two of them, and wondering how much longer it would be before they did anything about it.

Not interested in the festivities going on in the city, and wanting to give Rose and Clara some time together by themselves, he stuck to the area around the TARDIS, wanting to investigate the flora and fauna of the planet.

The plants were all beautiful, the various animals healthy and well-fed, and the Doctor couldn't help thinking it was odd that this planet didn't seem to have any enemies; it was rich with resources that many would want to take advantage of.

A long, thick vine covered in purple flowers caught his attention, and he decided to follow it to see where it originated. He made his way into a thick stand of bushes and trees, and when he finally broke through, was surprised to come face to face with a group of four Utopians, a woman with long dark hair, surrounded by a girl and two boys who were maybe her children, or her siblings.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Hello!" They regarded him warily, almost fearfully, and he frowned. "What's wrong?"

Their expressions became confused, and he tipped his head back. "Right, no negative words..." He thought a moment, and then looked back at them. "You are the opposite of happy. Why?"

"Men," the woman said timidly. "They are the opposite of nice. They are making people the opposite of healthy." She paused, and then added in a whisper, "The opposite of alive."

"When did they come?" he asked, crouching in front of them in an effort to seem less intimidating.

"It has been weeks. They are taking everybody in the city, so we ran here. Please keep our secret."

"I will. I promise. And I will fix this. I will give you back your planet."

The woman and the children looked hopeful at this, and the Doctor gave them a smile before something clicked in his mind.

"Wait, you said they were taking people in the city?"

The woman nodded. "They have kept up the signs for the festival and are taking people as they come into the city center."

The Doctor pushed abruptly to his feet, his mouth open as he felt his hearts sink, thinking about how he had just sent Rose and Clara right into the heart of the city.

\-----------

"This never gets old," Clara said cheerfully as she and Rose walked towards the city.

"What?" Rose asked, rather distracted by the feel of Clara's hand inside hers.

"Traveling around, getting to see the whole universe. Alien planets. Even just bouncing around in the TARDIS, exploring all of those rooms with you."

"Yeah," Rose laughed. "It never gets old for me either."

It wasn't that she and Clara hadn't held hands before. They did it a lot, just like Rose and the Doctor held hands, but the thing was that when Clara took her hand, Rose felt the same flutter in her stomach, the same swelling of her heart that she did when the Doctor took her hand, and she couldn't make sense of it. How could she feel the same way about two people?

Her feelings confused her, and she didn't feel ready to confront them just yet, so she kept them quiet, dimly hoping that things would sort themselves out eventually, and choosing to just enjoy the feel of Clara's fingers wrapped around hers.

"I wonder if they have a market," Rose said thoughtfully as they passed a sign that read _Festival_ , with an arrow pointing into the city. "I bought Mum this bazoolium thing once –"

The sentence ended abruptly as Rose was reminded that her mother was now stuck in a parallel world. It had been a year and a half since Canary Wharf, and she'd mostly gotten used to the idea that all she had now was the Doctor and Clara, but sometimes the thought of her mother was accompanied by a wave of longing.

Clara squeezed her fingers and pressed her cheek to Rose's arm as she wrapped her other arm around it, successfully distracting Rose from her thoughts. 

"It's weird," Clara said suddenly after a couple of minutes.

"What is?" Rose asked, maybe a little too quickly.

"There's a festival, right?"

"Yeah."

"So where are all the people?"

They slowed to a stop in the middle of the street, the silence quickly becoming oppressive and unsettling, and Rose shook her head.

"Maybe –"

The sound of running feet cut her off, and suddenly she and Clara were being pulled apart. Rose struggled against the strong hands on her arms, watching as Clara did the same with her captors. They looked human, big strong men dressed all in black, but their faces were somehow _wrong_ , and a shiver ran up Rose's back.

"Let her go!" she shouted, wrenching herself free. It had the effect of playing tug-of-war with someone who just released the rope, and she stumbled forward, tripping over her own feet and falling to the ground. Her head struck the pavement, and she grimaced in pain as stars exploded behind her eyelids.

"Rose!" she heard Clara scream, sounding so far away, and she lifted her gaze in time to watch helplessly as Clara was dragged away. Rose tried to push herself up, but her head throbbed sharply, and she collapsed to the ground once more; a moment later, she was unconscious.

\-----------

The Doctor raced towards the city and down the main road, and after just a few seconds, saw Rose lying unconscious on the ground. He leapt over her body and then spun to kneel beside her, reaching down to brush her hair back.

"Rose," he murmured, staring intently at her face. She didn't move, and he snatched the sonic screwdriver from the inside pocket of his jacket to do a quick scan of her head. The injury wasn't life threatening, but he needed to get her back to the TARDIS to tend to the gash on her head, and he put the sonic screwdriver away as he said Rose's name again.

Eventually, she began to stir, and he lowered his hand to her face, sweeping his thumb over her cheek. His hearts leapt when she opened her eyes, and she stared groggily up at him for a moment before her eyes widened and she abruptly sat up.

"Whoa, hey, slow down," the Doctor said, grabbing her shoulders.

"Clara!" she exclaimed, staring wildly around. "They took Clara! We have to find her!"

"We will, but first I need to take care of your head."

"No, we have to find Clara _now_."

"Rose!" the Doctor said sharply, making her look back at him. He met her gaze and raised his eyebrows. "We will find her. I promise you we will not leave this planet without her. But we have to go back to the TARDIS so I can take care of your head, and figure out what we're up against. All right?"

Tears shone in Rose's eyes as she stared at him, worrying her bottom lip, and finally she nodded.

The Doctor helped her to her feet, and they made their way back to the TARDIS.

After a quick scan of Rose's head in the infirmary, followed by the Doctor placing a cream on the cut and a bandage over it, they moved back into the console room.

"It itches," Rose muttered, poking at the bandage.

"That's 'cause it's healing, leave it alone."

Rose obeyed, looking sullen, and settled on the jump seat as the Doctor began poking at things on the console.

"Okay, tell me what they looked like."

Rose sighed. "They were big, tall guys. Really... blocky faces. Looked human enough, but there was something off about them. Something weird."

"Blocky faces?" the Doctor repeated.

"Yeah, like... like the alien bounty hunter on The X-Files." The Doctor looked at her, nonplussed, and she huffed. "Blimey, for someone who's an alien..."

"I don't like shows about aliens. They always get it wrong."

"Well, anyway, they had some serious bone structure going on. Square jaw, high cheekbones, just really... blocky. But there was something creepy about them. Like their faces weren't quite _right_."

"They sound like worker bees to me."

Rose frowned. "Sorry?"

"I think we are dealing with the Criari. They're not actually bees, but their social hierarchy is similar. There's a queen, her advisors and such, the nobility, and then the workers. They destroyed their own home planet, and now they fly around the universe, looking for new planets to mine for resources. They enslave the planet's inhabitants, make them work until they die, and once they've stripped the planet, they move on."

"So why'd they take Clara, then?" Rose asked, her hands moving restlessly in her lap. "We're not inhabitants of this planet."

The Doctor shrugged. "As long as you can work, they don't care. I'd wager they left you because you got knocked unconscious, they might have thought you were dead. The workers aren't the sharpest beings in the universe."

"Okay, well, this is all really interesting," Rose said as she pushed off the jump seat, "but we have to go get Clara back."

The Doctor intercepted her halfway to the door, stepping in front of her and placing his hands on her arms.

"We'll get her back, I promise, but we need to figure this out."

"I can't just _leave her_ , Doctor," Rose said agitatedly, tears in her eyes once more.

"We're not leaving her anywhere, but I haven't the first idea of where she might be. I need to scan the city, try to get a map or a blueprint or something. Just stay here, Rose, please."

Rose sighed and nodded, looking sullen, and the Doctor let her go to move back to the console. He poked at a few more buttons, squinting intently at the monitor, and then jerked his head back abruptly when he heard the squeak of the TARDIS doors.

Sure enough, Rose was gone, and the Doctor swore under his breath as he hurried after her.

"Rose, what are you doing?" he said, catching her when she was a few steps from the TARDIS.

"I can't sit around and wait," she replied, yanking her arm from his grip. "I can't sit here and do _nothing_ when she's wherever she is, maybe hurt, maybe –" She broke off with a gasp, tears in her eyes that spilled over when she blinked.

"Rose –"

"I love her!" Rose exclaimed, her chin quivering as she stared at the Doctor. "I love her, and I can't lose her. And I love you too, but you're here, and she's not, and I need both of you, and –" She broke off again with another gasp, and shook her head. "Doctor, please."

"Okay," the Doctor said, nodding as he lifted his hands to her arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Okay. Just give me one minute to get a couple of things, and we will go and find her. Don't leave this spot, I will be right back."

Rose nodded, raising her hand to her nose as she sniffled, and the Doctor ducked back into the TARDIS to retrieve his sonic screwdriver from the console before hurrying into the infirmary.

Rose was still standing where he'd left her, and he gave a sigh of relief when he saw her.

"What's that for?" she asked, frowning as she looked at the bottles of rubbing alcohol in his hands.

"Defense," he said, handing her one of the bottles. "Large amounts will kill them, but a small amount will just burn the skin. Like a priest with holy water. Distract them long enough so we can get by."

Rose nodded, and they started into the city.

"It's so quiet," she murmured. "I didn't notice it at first until Clara pointed it out, and now it's just... disturbing."

"We'll fix this," the Doctor replied. "Come on."

\----------

Clara paced anxiously around her cell, cradling her arm against her chest. She didn't know if something had broken when they'd thrown her down here, or if it was just badly bruised, but it hurt like mad, and holding it like this seemed to keep some of the pain at bay.

There was no way out that she'd been able to find. Her cell was more like a sunken pit, the walls too high and too smooth for her to climb out. She'd yelled a bit at first, made a few threats, but there had been no response, and she gave up. She knew Rose and the Doctor wouldn't just leave her here, and all she could do was wait for them to find her.

The image of Rose falling to the ground flashed through her mind again, and she felt a spike of worry and fear. She hoped Rose was all right, hoped the Doctor had found her and made sure she was okay. She liked Rose so much, and couldn't bear the thought of losing her.

Maybe 'like' wasn't a strong enough word. Her feelings for Rose confused her, and though Clara had never really been one to stay silent about anything, this was something she hadn't yet figured out how to articulate. Sometimes she thought there was something there for Rose as well, but Clara worried that if she tried to broach the subject with Rose, and turned out to be wrong about everything, it would ruin the easy dynamic the three of them had together. Not to mention Rose and the Doctor were obviously head over heels for each other, and Clara didn't think there was room for her in there, no matter what she might be feeling.

Her friendships with both Rose and the Doctor were too important to lose, and Clara didn't want to risk messing everything up.

Sighing softly, Clara continued to pace, lifting her hand to quickly swipe at the tears on her cheeks. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in here, but it felt like forever, and she hoped it wouldn't be much longer until the Doctor and Rose came to get her.

The sudden roar of what sounded very much like ship engines startled her, and she looked up, her eyes wide.

"Hello?" she yelled. She hurried over to other side of the pit, where she could just see the sky through the windows, and saw several ships rising into the air. Her heart sank, and she pounded the hand of her uninjured arm against the wall. "No! Don't leave me here!"

The whole building shook with the force of all the ships taking off, and Clara ran back to the other side, jumping up and down and yelling as loud as she could.

"Hey! Somebody! Help me, please!"

The longer she yelled, the more scared she got, and tears rolled down her cheeks again.

Where before there had been the constant sound of footsteps on concrete and metal, muffled chatter, and doors randomly opening and closing, now everything was silent, almost oppressively so, and Clara began to wonder if she really might be stranded here.

Just as she had this thought, she heard the door open, and her breath caught.

"He – hello?" she called, her voice hoarse now.

There was the sound of running, and then a familiar face appeared over the side of the pit.

"Rose!" Clara breathed, her heart leaping, and then gasped when Rose jumped right into the pit with her.

"Clara, I'm so glad you're okay," Rose said, pulling Clara into her arms. Though the hug was more than welcome, the pressure against Clara's arm made her cry out, and Rose pulled back, her expression worried.

"My arm," Clara explained, sniffling lightly. "I hurt it when they threw me down here."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Rose said, her eyes on Clara's arm. She stared at it a moment, her expression stricken, full of too many emotions for Clara to pinpoint just one, and then lifted her gaze.

Their eyes met, and before Clara fully realized what was happening, Rose reached up, took Clara's face in her hands, and pressed a kiss to her lips. Clara hesitated for the barest half of a second before kissing Rose back, her good hand rising to Rose's hair.

The Doctor's voice sounded suddenly. "Rose, I told you to tell me when you found Clara – Oh. Blimey."

Rose and Clara broke apart, both of them gasping softly as they met each other's eyes again, and then they looked up at the Doctor. He stared back with raised eyebrows, and abruptly lifted his head, staring around the large room.

"S'pose I should find a ladder," he murmured, disappearing out of sight.

Rose and Clara looked at each other again, and then giggled breathlessly. Before either of them could speak, the Doctor reappeared and lowered a metal ladder down into the pit. Rose urged Clara to go first, and climbed up behind her, staying close in case Clara needed her help.

When Clara reached the top, the Doctor took her hand and helped her up, pulling her into a gentle hug.

"What's wrong here?" he asked when he pulled back, carefully taking her arm in his hands as Rose came up beside both of them.

"Not sure," Clara replied, wincing a little at his touch. "I fell on it when they threw me down there, but I don't know if something's broken or what."

"Well, let's get back to the TARDIS and get you fixed up."

Clara nodded, and the Doctor smiled as he lifted his hand to her cheek, touching a quick kiss to her forehead before turning towards the door. Clara looked over at Rose, who smiled as she reached for Clara's hand, and they followed the Doctor from the room.

The city's inhabitants were slowly emerging from their hiding places, and the Doctor directed several of them to the other cells where he and Rose had liberated their fellow Utopians from prison and slavery.

"What happened, anyway?" Clara asked.

"Oh, you know him," Rose muttered. "That whole 'I'm the Doctor' song and dance."

"The 'Oncoming Storm' bit?" Clara said, the corner of her mouth rising.

"That's the one," Rose confirmed. She met Clara's gaze, and they both started laughing, much to the Doctor's indignation.

"Oi! I saved the world, didn't I?"

"All in a day's work," Rose said, grinning as she pushed on her toes to kiss his cheek, her hand still tight around Clara's as she took the Doctor's hand in her other one.

"They may not have any negative words in their vocabulary," he said as they continued up the road, "but they do know how to take care of each other when they're hurt. I think they'll be fine, but we'll stick around for a bit in case they need help."

"And I, for one, could do with a nap," Rose murmured.

"Cheers to that," Clara agreed.

A short while later they were all in Clara's bedroom on the TARDIS, Clara in the middle of the bed with Rose and the Doctor on either side of her. Her injured arm was wrapped in a bandage from wrist to elbow, with the Doctor's assurances that it would be all healed within a few hours.

Rose was curled up right beside Clara, hugging her uninjured arm with her cheek pressed against Clara's shoulder, while the Doctor was on his side, his fingers joined loosely with Clara's.

"So," Clara began softly, looking first at Rose, then at the Doctor. "What happens now?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Well –" 

"Between us, I mean," Clara amended quickly, the corner of her mouth rising as the Doctor's eyes flicked to her face. "I love both of you, but I don't want to come between what you have."

Rose shook her head, her eyebrows knitting together. "You're not coming between us. I love you both, and I have almost lost you both, and I don't want to feel like I have to choose who I want to be with now. Why should I have to choose?"

"You don't," the Doctor replied. "You and I love each other, and you and Clara love each other, and while I may not share the same feelings for Clara that I do for you, at least not yet, I care for her very much. I want both of you to be happy."

Rose bit her lip as she looked at the Doctor. "I just don't want you to think that I love you any less."

"I could never think that, Rose," he said, smiling at her. "I know your heart, and you most definitely do not have a finite amount of love to give."

Rose smiled too, and the Doctor leaned forward to give her a kiss. When it broke, Rose looked down at Clara and lifted her hand to Clara's cheek, still smiling as she bent to kiss her as well.

Rose settled beside her once more, her head back on Clara's shoulder, their hands joined between them, and when the Doctor started to get up, Rose grabbed his hand, urging him to stay.

Looking a bit uncertain, he shifted close to Clara, and draped his arm over both her and Rose, taking care not to jostle Clara's hurt arm. Clara's hand moved slowly to cover his, her fingers twining with his, and she looked back at him, smiling softly. He smiled too, relaxing as he looked at her, and moved his head forward to touch his lips to hers in an experimental kiss. Her smile was wider when they pulled apart, her fingers tightening around his, and she gave him another soft kiss before shifting back into her previous position.

The Doctor lay with them until he was sure they were both asleep, and he pressed a kiss to Clara's head as he carefully got out of bed. He dropped another kiss to Rose's cheek and stood a moment, smiling down at the two of them, before leaving the room, quietly closing the door behind him.


End file.
